Australia 365-3 at tea on day 3; lead England by 19 runs

Sydney, Jan 6 (AP) Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh batted
watchfully against some tight England bowling to guide
Australia to 365-3 at tea, establishing a first-innings lead
of 19 runs on day three of the fifth Ashes Test.

After earlier reaching his first test century in more
than a year, Khawaja continued his revival to be 166 not out
at the interval.

Khawaja raised his 150 off 333 balls, with 16 fours and a
six, with consecutive boundaries off Moeen Ali. His milestone
drew warm appreciation from a capacity Sydney Cricket Ground
cloaked in pink to support the McGrath Foundation breast
cancer charity fundraiser, which is in its 10th year.

It was the 31-year-old Khawaja's second time past 150 in
his 29 test matches and he needs 10 more runs to pass his
highest Test score of 175.

Australia took the lead 15 minutes before tea with Marsh
playing a cover drive for a boundary to surpass England's
first innings total of 346.

Shortly after, he reached his half-century from 121 balls
with consecutive boundaries off Jimmy Anderson.

With the hosts placing a high value on defending their
wickets, chances were few and far between for England in the
middle session.

Captain Joe Root appeared to have given the first
breakthrough of the afternoon in the 115th over removing Shaun
Marsh caught behind when on 22. Marsh immediately requested a
review and the TV replays showed that the ball had missed the
bat and the out decision was reversed.

Earlier, Khawaja and Steve Smith combined for a 188-run
partnership to swing the game firmly in Australia's favor.

The pair almost batted through a second consecutive
session only for Ali to get the prize breakthrough of Smith
moments before the lunch interval and deny the Australia
captain another century that would have matched Bradman's 1930
feat of scoring four hundreds in an Ashes series.

England face the likelihood of a large first-innings
deficit, despite a strong rally on Friday morning by their
lower order which lifted the tourists to a competitive 346,
after it had slumped to 233-5 when it lost its last specialist
batsman, Dawid Malan (62), early in the session.

Australia then had an early setback in its innings,
losing Cameron Bancroft for a duck bowled by Stuart Broad,
before a half century by David Warner and a match-turning
partnership between Khawaja and Smith helped the host's push
for a 4-0 series victory.

Australia won the first three Tests convincingly to
regain the Ashes, and the fourth test was drawn last week in
Melbourne